by Anne Dodd and Ian Miller

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What was the Industrial Revolution?

The Industrial Revolution is the name given to the period in the 18th and 19th centuries when Britain was transformed from a predominantly agricultural nation into the manufacturing workshop of the world. Rapid scientific, technological and commercial innovations, a rising population, improved transportation and expanding domestic and international markets provided the context for the development of thousands of mills, factories, mines and workshops. Mining, engineering and manufacturing continued to provide employment for millions of people well into the 20th century.

Why is it important?

If the Industrial Revolution had never taken place, our lives might be very different today. These are some of the ways in which the Industrial Revolution transformed the world we live in:

A new geography: cities, roads, railways, ports, canals

Many of our major cities, such as Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield, developed as centres of manufacturing during the 18th and 19th centuries. Villages and towns grew up around the newly developed mines, and the production and processing of coal, iron and steel transformed rural areas in the north of England and in Wales into massive industrial complexes. Other places grew because they were important hubs in the essential transport infrastructure that supported expanded trade - the docks at Liverpool, for example, and the railway towns of Swindon, Didcot, Darlington and Crewe. London itself expanded massively as industry and docks spread eastwards along the Thames Estuary. First canals, and then railways, transformed the transport network of the country.

The growth of industry changed the character of urban life as well. Mills, factories and workshops were constructed within expanding towns, often covering very large areas of land. Terraces of cheap housing were put up for the new industrial workers and their families. More prosperous people moved out of the city centres, to escape the noise and dirt of the factories. Suburban estates of substantial detached and semi-detached ‘villas’ were put up everywhere in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to cater for the middle classes. Trams, railways and buses meant that it was possible for the middle classes to commute to work from their suburban homes.

Mass-produced goods for millions of people

The Industrial Revolution made possible the mass-production of goods, with cheap cotton textiles, ribbons, pottery, glass, cutlery, furniture, pots and pans and much else available at affordable prices to millions of people in ways that had never been possible before. The everyday material standard of living most people enjoy in this country today would never have been attainable without these developments. The tremendous scientific advances of the 20th century also owe much to the improvements in manufacturing, engineering and communications of the preceding two hundred years.

A wealthier world supporting many more people

The Industrial Revolution, and the growth of worldwide trade, has also brought about an enormous expansion of wealth. Today, the population of the UK is approaching 60 million people. Such numbers could never have been supported from an agricultural economy with the limited craft-working of pre-industrial society. Standards of living are vastly higher than in pre-industrial times, with most people today able to afford and enjoy a wide range of goods and services way beyond the necessities of bare subsistence.

New ways of living and working

We also live very different lives from our pre-industrial forefathers. Until the early 18th century the great majority of people would have spent their lives working on the land, or in service to wealthier farmers and landowners. This pattern was broken decisively in Britain during the Industrial Revolution, as more and more people moved off the land and into mills, factories, mines and offices. Today only a very small proportion of the population is employed in agriculture, and the great majority of us live in towns and cities, rather than in the countryside.